After a police raid in Stockholm, the worlds leading file sharing site The Pirate Bay is still offline. It might be back at any moment. Or it might be gone for ever.
The real tragedy is that a gigant cluster of information might be gone with it. Even tough TPB was a haven for illegal file sharing, it was also an open and popular platform for legal file sharing.
Personally, I used TPB to distribute a book of mine under a Creative Commons license. In the same way TPB has been used by thousands and thousands of artists–knowing that obscurity is a worse problem than pirate copying.
TPB was (or is) an open, easy to use channel for distribution of information. No need for registration, no credit card needed and no questions asked. As it should be.
TPB also had (has) critical mass. Being the world leading site for file sharing–almost everything you want or can imagine was (is) available. No one really can compete with that.
A world without TPB would be a poorer, duller and worse off place.
Regardless if TPB will be back or not–there should be a TPB II. A truly open and decentralised system for trouble free file sharing. A system without a singe point of failure.
/ HAX
TorrentFreak: The Pirate Bay HAS NOT Been Resurrected – YET »
Forbes: Can Pirate Bay Weather The Storm? »
I’m with you on this one.
The site has been up for a little while now, under a different domain name (http://www.thepiratebay.cr/). It looks like most of the essential functions have been restored as well. Cheers!